Tungsten carbide can be easily found with different qualities in the market. In the early time, customers only choose by price basis, some prefer using low cost carbide to save money, but this acton usally results in paying even higher cost for the mould. To evaluate, first of all,we need to know that the machining cost of carbide is usually 10 to 100 times compare to the carbide material cost itself and in most cases, whether the mould can provide high cost-performance level is highly dependent on the carbide material quality itself. The difference between Tungsten Carbide and normal Steel is that Tungsten Carbide is powder metallurgical steel, the sintering process is done by the manufacturer itself, therefore each carbide manufacturer has their own unique carbide recipe (grade) and know-how in manufacturing. In this case, the carbide quality is very dependent on manufacturer's know-how and technology. On top of this, once carbide is sintered, it cannot go through any further process to modify it's property and quality(e.g. Heat reatment and re-hardening process), so this mean the quality of the carbide you get depends very much on the quality of the manufacturer you buy from, which will also determine the tool-life in the stamping process.
